Sir David Maddison obituary

David Maddison was appointed a circuit judge in 1992 and was the honorary recorder of Manchester from 2003 until 2008, when he was appointed to the high court

My father, David Maddison, who has died aged 72, was a criminal barrister whose impressive career led to his eventual appointment as a high court judge in 2008, when he was also knighted.

High-profile cases he was involved in include one of the longest murder investigations in British legal history – the 1987 killing of Daniel Morgan in south London – which took 21 years to come before him at the Old Bailey and eventually collapsed, largely on the grounds of police misconduct.

In 2016 my father sat as a judge in the court of appeal over the rape conviction of the footballer Ched Evans, who was later acquitted.

David’s parents, Claude Maddison, an accountant, and Clarice (nee Iveson), lived in Richmond, south-west London, but travelled to Cudworth, Yorkshire, when it was time for her to give birth, as Claude was a Yorkshireman and a good cricketer, and he wanted David to be eligible to play for the county. Despite being a talented player, that wish, unfortunately, was never fulfilled.

The family eventually settled in Chester, where David attended the King’s school. He went to Durham University to study law and economics, graduating in 1968, and was called to the bar in 1970, with his pupillage at the chambers of David Kemp in London. My father moved to Liverpool when he was taken on by the chambers of Justin Price in 1972, then practised on the northern circuit for the next 20 years.

It was while having a pint at the Black Bull pub in Gateacre, Liverpool, in 1974 that he met Indira Saverymuttu, a biochemist. She, having just bought a Triumph Spitfire, had driven there for a jaunt with a mutual barrister friend. David and Indira married two years later.

David was appointed a circuit judge in 1992 and was the honorary recorder of Manchester from 2003 until 2008, when he was appointed to the high court (Queen’s bench division). He retired in 2012, but continued to sit at first instance and in the court of appeal until 2017.

He was on the Parole Board from 1996 to 2002, and was director of criminal training at the Judicial Studies Board (now the Judicial College) from 2010 to 2013, where he was the first, and so far only, lecturer to receive a 100% approval rating from the notoriously difficult-to-please delegates. In 2014, in order to mark his contribution, he became the college’s first honorary fellow.

Away from the law he played the piano and enjoyed tennis, and was accomplished at both. He was also a keen golfer. His greatest love, however, was Liverpool football club, at which he was a season ticket holder.

He is survived by Indira, by his sons, Graeme, Simon and me, and by five grandchildren.